Niueans To Go Without Electricity For Three Weeks

Niueans To Go Without Electricity For Three
Weeks

Niueans may have
to live rough on their tiny South Pacific island for up to
three weeks while waiting for a new power generator.

The
destruction this week of the island’s main source of
electricity has caused chaos, forcing school classrooms to
close and bringing government services to a virtual
standstill.

Niue’s dejected
Premier, Young Vivian.

Without power to
reticulate water, the island’s population of around 1300
have to ration water supplies, cook with gas and dine by
candlelight.

As the Niue government pleads for New Zealand
to urgently provide a new generator, their disaster
management officials are trying to ensure the island can
cope in survival mode.

They’re hoping the New Zealand Air
Force can provide a Hercules aircraft to transport a
generator and associated equipment to the island.

Because
of worries about a reliable runway lighting system at Niue’s
Hanan International Airport, Niue has asked Air New Zealand
to consider a daylight flight from Auckland to Niue instead
of the normal late night 737 service it normally runs on
Fridays.

The generator’s destruction while he was out of
the country is just the latest headache for Niue’s dejected
Premier, Young Vivian.

Since returning to Auckland from a
conference of Pacific Island leaders in Japan on Monday,
he’s been virtually sleepless while contemplating how fellow
countrymen are coping with his island’s latest crisis and
considering options.

Ironically he was in Auckland
arranging for his wife’s funeral when Cyclone Heta
devastated his island homeland back in January, 2004.

Mr
Vivian estimates a new generator will cost in the range of
$500,000, money his cash-strapped government does not
have.

He’s not sure how the fire started but wonders if
the departure to Australia of Niue’s only qualified
electrician two weeks ago may have been a factor.

His eyes
widening, he described how the recruitment of a stand-in
electrician for only two months would cost Niue
$39,000.

Mr Vivian said: “This is an emergency. It cannot
go on very long. If we have no water, I reckon a week and we
will have to consider going back to basics.

“I think it is
grovelling time again. Do you think I like grovelling? It is
depressing for people to have to do that. No one likes to be
like that.

“I feel very frustrated about the whole thing
because our future is not clear. We are dependent on things
beyond my control. I’m at the mercy of those people who
assist us.

“We begin to get it right [post Cyclone Heta]
and we get hard hit again. It’s not the last straw. There’s
hope. The lifestyle in Niue is better than in New Zealand,”
he said as he agonised at the thought thousands of Niueans
had left their homeland --- about 20,000 live in New Zealand
--- for what they regarded as a higher standard of
living.

Niue, he said, had small emergency generators for
its airport, new hospital, telecommunications and
broadcasting station but there was no way they can cater for
the needs of 600 households.

Because of the importance of
the airport runway lights and Niue’s present reliance on
emergency power, he hoped Air New Zealand would be able
reschedule the next 737 flight to daylight hours.

“We do
not want Air New Zealand to take risks,” he said.

An
irony in the power calamity was the fact that the myriad of
400 to 800-gallon water tanks Niue householders used to own
were deliberately destroyed about 15 years ago on the advice
of foreign health officials worried the structures would
harbour dengue fever-bearing mosquitos.

Mr Vivian said
officials in Niue were formulating written submissions to
the New Zealand on how best the power crisis could be
overcome.

Sisilia Talagi, Niue's high commissioner to New Zealand, said she received several inquiries from Niue-bound tourists wanting to know if they should go ahead with their holiday plans. She told them they would have to "rough it" if they flew to the island in the next week or so.

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